Pretoria - The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) is going all out to ensure that inmates leave correctional centres with better skills and prospects, so they can contribute positively when they are reintegrated in society.
Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele today officially opened South Africa’s 12th full-time correctional centre school at the Qalakabusha Correctional Centre in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal.
DCS has increased the number of full-time correctional centre schools from one in 2009 to 12 in 2013. This year, three additional schools are scheduled for accreditation at the Rustenburg, Boksburg and Ekuseni Youth Centres. From 2010 to 2013, 73 881 inmates participated in education programmes.
Addressing the official opening of the Qalakabusha Correctional Centre School Minister Ndebele said: “Correctional Services has come a long way since the prison service inherited from the apartheid regime in 1994. The transformation programme of our democratic government necessitated that prisons shift from institutions of humiliation to institutions of new beginnings.
“From 1994 to 2014, DCS achieved a 99.97% success rate in secure custody of inmates. From 2004, the inmate population has been reduced by 31 000, resulting in a saving of more than R1.4 billion to the fiscus.”
The Qalakabusha Correctional Centre School has 10 classrooms, nine offices, one library, one computer training centre, one staff room and three store rooms. Twenty full-time educators are employed at the school.
For the 2014 academic year, 466 inmates are registered at the school. This includes 357 offenders participating in AET, 20 in Further Education and Training (mainstream) and 89 in Further Education and Training (college).
Minister Ndebele said research shows that at least 95% of those incarcerated will return to society after serving their sentence, which made the rehabilitation of offenders critical.
During 2012, R66.4 million was allocated for equipping offenders with scarce skills including welding, plumbing, bricklaying, plastering, electrical, carpentry and agricultural skills programmes.
A further 416 youth offenders graduated with their International Computer Driver Licence (ICDL) certificates. As from 1 April 2013, it is compulsory for every inmate, without a qualification equivalent to Grade 9, to complete Adult Education and Training (AET) level 1 to 4.
Between April and September 2013, 11 649 inmates registered for AET programmes. From 2012 to 2013, 559 inmates wrote Grade 9 to 11 examinations, with an average pass rate of 73% in 2013.
The number of inmates who wrote Grade 12 examinations doubled, and those who gained university admission also increased. In the 2013 Grade 12 examinations, inmates achieved 60 subject distinctions. – SAnews.gov.za
